Grand Jury gets Mississippi DUI Case, but victim still in dark on outcome

(Eudora, MS ) “I am waiting and waiting. I can’t have closure until I know this is done. I feel like my husband died for nothing,” says a frustrated Jeri Smith.

The man she blames for the accident that killed her husband and injured her is still free.

A DeSoto County Grand Jury looked at the case last week, reviewing blood test results showing the man who hit the Smiths last July, Adam Etlicher, had hard-core drugs in his system.

“He was under the influence of cocaine and hydrocodone. That still has an effect on your brain. You can’t function normally,” says Jeri.

Even Shelby County’s former Medical Examiner, O.C. Smith, voiced concerns about how the drugs could affect a driver.

“It will impair your judgement, impair your perception, your reflexes,” Smith told us during an interview back in October.

The Grand Jury made its decision about filing charges against Etlicher, but Jeri is still waiting to hear the results, wondering how the Grand Jury could do anything but indict Etlicher.

So what exactly did the Grand Jury do?

How does it decide if charges should be filed?

Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich isn’t involved in this case but says the Grand Jury reviews evidence, “They look at what’s presented to them and decide if there is enough to return a true bill, what is called a true bill.”

“If they hurt somebody and somebody knows they are not gonna do anything, where is the justice here. There is no justice,” says Jeri Smith.

Smith and her attorney have also filed a civil suit against Adam Etlicher, hoping to get something.

She still has massive medical bills from the accident that are close to a million dollars.

District Attorney John Champion says he is not sure his Assistant D.A. has contacted the Smith family.